The Walk-In Closet Is the New Outdoor Kitchen: The Features You Find in New Homes Today

If you’ve been dreaming about that brand-new house with the outdoor kitchen, the two-story foyer, and the luxurious master bathroom, complete with a whirlpool tub—well, good luck finding one.

In prerecession times, developers had wrested such sexy amenities from the realm of luxury building into the everyman’s (and woman’s) home. But today? Homebuilders across the nation have decided to skip the sexy, cutting out those kinds of features in favor of efficient,organized, and pragmatic ones.

The NAHB surveyed nearly 400 builders earlier this year about the features they were most and least likely to include in homes and communities in 2015. In addition to outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplaces, sunrooms, main-level carpeting, and media rooms are on the decline. On the rise: walk-in closets, laundry rooms, energy-efficientWINDOWS and appliances, and programmable thermostats—yes, there is a green theme. It’s all about efficiency, both of time and resources.

“If a working couple is trying to get out of the house in the morning, they need a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, they need a laundryROOMthat’s well-lit and well-organized,” Melman says. “That’s how they improve the efficiency of the household, find clothes, get organized, and hide the clutter. Do they need a whirlpool or do they need a walk-in closet with a skylight?”

Melman says that even as the economy (at least in some sectors)CONTINUES to improve, buyers are fixated on comfort and affordability. It’s part of a postrecession cultural shift toward pragmatism. We’re not settling; we’ve merely changed our expectations for new homes, and homebuilders have adjusted their creations accordingly, appealing to a segment that’s willing to forgo a two-story foyer or family room to get a better price.

“As first-time buyers, they are unlikely to opt for elaborate outdoor features when they are scraping to come up with aDOWN PAYMENT,” Melman says.

Their list of most and least likely features does offer a few surprises; it’s not all about the decline of luxury. Once a high-end item, granite countertops are now more popular than laminate. Builders are swapping the two-story family room for a great room. Specialty spots such as mediaROOMS or sunrooms are being replaced by spaces that are more flexible, Melman says, especially additional bedrooms. And communities with jogging and walking trails, previously coveted, are now less popular than a two-car garage. The cost of the land, Melman says, is just too high.

Yet just because these features are less common doesn’t mean you can’t getYOUR hands on a house that includes them. All you have to do is spend moreMONEY. In places with weaker markets, you might see such features built into homes priced above $500,000. In places such as San Francisco or New York, you might get an apartment barelyLARGER than a walk-in closet for that amount.

Features such as outdoor kitchens have slipped back into the province of the luxury buyer; you’ll still see them in high-end homes, but your average home buyers will have to be content with their Weber grill.

Below you’ll find ranked lists of most and least likely features to be included in a new home, plus those that remain perennial. The builders graded each feature on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means “not at all likely to include” and 5 means “definitely will include.”